NBA begins Nike uniform rollout and Kings unveil new uniforms

Nike’s planned “Global Launch” of their NBA uniforms may not be happening until October 1, but that hasn’t stopped them from giving us a look at what’s going to be coming once things are official. In fact, one team has already decided to unveil their home-and-aw– I mean, Association and Icon uniforms for the upcoming season.

That brings us to the first big Nike/NBA news of the day, which is that they’ve decided to eschew the traditional idea of a home-and-away uniform in favor of just letting the teams choose what uniform they want to wear at home from four different choices and going from there. Here’s the explanation straight from Nike themselves:

Coinciding with the introduction of the new uniforms, the NBA is eliminating its “Home” and “Road” uniform designations. Beginning with the 2017-18 season, home teams will pick which of their uniforms will be worn at all home games and visiting teams will choose a contrasting uniform within their own assortment.

Because of this change, Nike and the NBA worked together to create four core uniforms for each team, classified as “editions,” which draw from the rich heritage of the NBA and its respective franchises.

Clearly, Nike and the NBA noticed that teams were often choosing to wear their color uniforms at home a lot more often than usual and decided that it was time to enter the era of HD and just let the teams wear what they want. I actually made this suggestion back in January and while I’m not going to go so far as to say that the league actually listened to my opinion on this issue, I feel really good knowing that I saw this coming.

Meanwhile, the Sacramento Kings decided that today was the day to reveal their Association and Icon uniforms. If you were expecting a major change, you might be disappointed. This will more-than-likely be similar to Nike’s NFL rollout in that we’ll see a bunch of small changes but very few major changes. That’s the case for the Kings.

Notable changes include moving the crown logo that was once present on the collar to the waistband. Also, the piping on the collar and on the side of the jersey has changed a little bit as well. Then there’s the sponsor logo, which is prominently displayed and yet another reminder that “Yes, this is really happening.”

Paul Lukas of Uni Watch tweeted out comparisons of the old Adidas uniforms to the new Nike uniforms, so hopefully that will give you a better idea of the changes that were made — small or not.

The Kings also hinted at what their third and fou– I mean, Classic edition jerseys will be. However, it’s very easy to guess that the Icon jersey will just be a tweaked version of their third jersey from last season and the Classic jersey will be their powder blue throwbacks.

Lastly, you may have noticed that the Nike Swoosh logo is also on the jersey. Apparently the Swoosh will be on the official uniforms as they also gave us a sneak preview of what the Golden State Warriors’ white uniform will look like this season.

I’d imagine that every team in the league is probably going to have a similar unveiling to what the Kings had today, so you may as well strap in for what figures to be a very interesting Summer when it comes to NBA uniforms. What do you all make of what you’ve seen so far?

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Demetrius is an avid sports fan, a dedicated student of the uniform and logo game, and a prolific user of twitter. You can follow him at @fergoe and read his personal blog at fittedcapfiend.blogspot.com